Mannex’s Directory of Furness and Cartmel, 1882, mentions the Church organist -
Ed. Brown, Esq., Mns. Bac., Oxon. I have a photo copy of an article from the Belfast Telegraph dated Saturday, October 19th, 1940 which mentions Dr Edward Brown. He was the father of E. Godfrey Brown who later moved to Belfast where he was the conductor of the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra for many years. He and his family settled in Holywood, Co. Down
Captain T. O. Corrin, who died in 1940, was a student of Dr Edward Brown whilst he lived in Barrow in Furness. He taught in Barrow prior to the Great War and then enlisted in the Army. During the war he met an Army nurse from Scotland who later became his wife. Their wedding ceremony took place
After the war Captain Corrin turned his hand to tea planting and later returned to England and a musical career. Around 1923 he came to Ulster as the organist and choirmaster of Portadown Parish Church. Shortly after he arrived to take up that position E. Godfrey Brown invited him to become assistant director of Music at the BBC. He gained a reputation as a piano accompanist for soloists and occasionally a pianist with the orchestra. he was also known as “Uncle Tom” in the Children’s Hour programme.
He was appointed to the post of Inspector of Music in the Ministry of Education in Northern Ireland in 1925. His work in that position was handicapped by the system of teaching music at Elementry Schools in this part of the world at that time. Many of the teachers may well have been all round educationalists but they were either incapable or not inclined to undertake the specialist work required to teach young musicians.
Captain T. O. Corrin was also the organist at Holywood Parish Church until he returned to military life at the start of the Second World War.
